You want to know about Dana Hunter, then, do you? I'm a science blogger, SF writer, compleat geology addict, Gnu Atheist, and owner of a - excuse me, owned by a homicidal felid. I loves me some Doctor Who and Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. Sums me up. I'm a Midwest-born Southwesterner transplanted to the Pacific Northwest, which should explain some personality quirks, the tendency to sprinkle Spanish around, and why I'll subject you to some real jawbreakers in the place names department. My cobloggers, Karen Locke, Jacob and Steamforged, and I are delighted to be your cantineras y cantinero. Join us for una tequila. And feel free to follow @dhunterauthor on Twitter. Salud!

Writing

Search ETEV

Dana Hunter is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to En Tequila Es Verdad.

EVENTS

Some people may find that a rather grim, depressing quote, but it’s uplifting to me. No, we haven’t got any guarantees. Yes, there is pain. But only some. And we’re the ones working out our destiny. That means we get to choose the direction we go, and that’s a hopeful thing indeed.

Dearest Carl. Reading Cosmos changed my life pretty much forever, and this is one of the lines that did it. He knew there’s no reason why you can’t enjoy a good laugh while you were reading your science.

If you haven’t read Cosmos, go do so forthwith. Then follow up with Pale Blue Dot, and top it off with The Demon-Haunted World.

Share this:

Excess of grief for the dead is madness; for it is an injury to the living, and the dead know it not.

-Xenophon

You know what, forget Plato. Xenophon was a much better writer, and reading his Memorabilia was a sheer joy. He lived an interesting life, which included palling around with Socrates, being a mercenary, and getting his ass exiled from Athens likely for both of the above (Athens, it seems, didn’t appreciate mercenaries if they weren’t fighting for Athens). Most people turn to Plato for their Socrates fix, but Xenophon knew him too, so if you’re tired of pompous assery, go Xenophon.

The quote above strikes me as a soldier’s quote. It’s good advice for us all. Remember it when my time comes: I want the cantina flowing with drink, laughter and love. None of this maudlin sendoff stuff, m’kay?

Share this:

If you’ve never read Sartre, don’t do so unless you’re ready for a head trip. The Existentialists aren’t an easy read on the best of days, and Sartre was a master of the philosophy, which means you’ll walk away feeling as though your brain has been pounded, stretched, stomped on, and pureed by many large men in spiked boots. However, there are many truths in Sartre’s existentialist worldview, including the fact that hell is other people – and spending an eternity with them in a room filled with Second Empire furniture.

I highly recommend No Exit. Then, if your brain isn’t suitably pummeled, try Herman Hesse’sSteppenwolf. Then consider that I read both of these when I was still in high school, by my own choice, and you might begin to understand why I’m a little weird.

Despite sounding like a Gnu Atheist gigantidick, Blaise Pascal was a 17th Century mathematician and physicist whose name you should curse if you don’t like getting injections, as he had a little something to do with the invention of syringes. He’s also the guy who came up with Pascal’s Triangle, which is apparently important to mathematicians.

The above quote comes from his Pensées, in which he not only defended Christianity, but included his famous Wager.

Of course, Blake was a visionary, a poet and artist who saw art as life and science as death, so his truth can’t be understood as scientific truth. Still, an excellent and useful quote, especially when it comes to dickish arguments.

If you’re a metal fan, you really mustn’t miss Bruce Dickinson’s The Chemical Wedding, which is not only superb metal but injects Blake right through the soundstream into your brain, which isn’t a bad way at all to spend an evening.

No, Epicurus wasn’t an atheist. No, he wasn’t a hedonist. But he believed in living a pleasant life, thought the gods couldn’t be bothered with humans, and enjoyed evidence-based thinking. In a culture where women were usually shut away in their houses and kept from education, he allowed women into his school, along with slaves. All in all, the kind of philosopher with ideas worth considering.

From the above quote, one gets the impression he would have agreed with the sentiment, “Wish in one hand and shit in the other…”

Alas, I don’t know quite where this quote came from. I just know that I love it, because I live it every day.

E.B. White, of course, was the author of Charlotte’s Web, which is a good book for determining who among us is destined to grow up a sociopath or a critic. If you didn’t cry, you’re probably one or the other.

He’s also the White of Strunk & White fame. He also satirized Freud. No wonder he won the Presidential Medal of Freedom.